I’ve just been outside walking, the sun’s about to set, I only needed a sweatshirt… one of those grand, sunny January days in New Mexico. But we all know the cold front is coming. We love to talk about the weather here because it turns on a dime. Always something you can talk about with a friend or an absolute stranger. Like the man I passed out walking. “Hi there.” “How are you?” “Fine… enjoying this while I can.” “Yep, I hear it’s about to change.” “Yep, we’re in for some snow.” And on we go in our beautiful 70 degree world.

So, while I was walking I was thinking about our weather turning on a dime. You never know what you’re going to get in January. Last year at this time I was getting ready to take a flight out of Lubbock, headed for Chile and one of those big boats I love so much. Odds are in your favor to fly out of West Texas with sunshine in January. Not the case last January. We crunched over ice a day early making the two hour drive in four hours, then inched our way to the airport the next morning to find our plane literally stuck to the tarmac with heavy ice, and planes all over the south delayed due to the storm.

To make a terribly long day short, I’ll sum it up into a sentence if I can. Didn’t make it to Chile, but did get to Argentina, a bit of broken Spanish, lots of friendly people, eventually getting to Chile, but landing two hours away from the ship two hours after it was to have departed. How ‘bout that? It’s a long winding sentence, but it pretty well sums it up. (Okay, I left out the part about the very expensive taxi ride… but you can use your own imagination on that.)

Here’s the point I eventually came around to while I was out taking my walk earlier this evening. We didn’t miss the ship. The ship was delayed due to two not-so-pleasant situations. First… the captain navigating through really rough seas to get to port. Second… the dreaded cruise-ship-sickness, requiring a thorough and massive cleaning of the ship. While all the other passengers were anxiously waiting to be allowed on board, dealing with luggage, baking in the South American summer heat, frustrated that they couldn’t get to the Lido Deck and enjoy that great buffet… Gary and I were frantically winging our way over the Andes on a little prop plane, having flown through the night, hoping our luggage was somewhere findable, wondering if we could even get to Valparaiso once we landed in Santiago, and what we would do if we got there and the ship was gone. But the ship was there, and we got on with about thirty minutes to spare. Rest assured… of all the crew and all the passengers, we had the biggest smiles going!

This line comes to mind: One man’s junk is another man’s treasure. What was misfortune for so many on that day turned out to be a great treat for us. I’ll let this be a reminder to me! You never know what kinds of good things are working out for others, even though things might not seem so rosy in your own day. We’ve just got to roll with it.

I would appear ungrateful if I didn’t add this. Holland America people were very helpful and friendly on the other end of my cell phone… and they did reimburse the fare on that ridiculously high taxi ride!

2 Responses to “January Sunshine”

Always good to be reminded that complaining and whining when things don’t go our way is first of all pointless but more importantly it’s not remembering who is in control. I like how you worded it…”never know what kinds of good things are working out for others”. Thanks, Sandy. May I remember to not be selfish!